Choose between Big 4 or go the finance route?

I’m an accounting and finance double major at a top 10 undergrad business school in the northeast. Up until now, I was going the accounting route full force. I recruited heavily with the Big 4 my sophomore year and ended up doing summer leadership programs with EY and PwC, which led to internship offers for next summer. I’m on track to graduate with 150 credit hours and hopefully get my CPA the summer after I graduate. The Big 4 really know how to sell themselves, but looking at it now, I’m not so sure it’s what I want to do. I know it would be great experience, especially if I network within the firm and with clients. But it’s not very glamorous work for not so great pay. I know a lot of people, including family members, who did banking and love it (and their pay is significantly higher than what I would make…not a huge factor but still a factor for sure). Is the experience worth it for someone who isn’t 100% sure what they want to do? I know EY and PwC are great firms and I’m very grateful for offers, but what would be the consequences of accepting one but still looking for a finance internship during the fall? The deadline to accept or reject is early August of my junior year, so before IB recruitment starts. I know they do that on purpose to prevent you from looking elsewhere, but would it be in my best interest to do some other recruitment just in case? Which route would be better long term? I would love to get opinions from anyone in the accounting or finance field. Thanks!

CPAdragon

Accept one of them first. It will prevent you from some stress down the road in case you can’t land a job in banking.
Once you get an offer for a banking job, you are free to tell them (PwC or EY) that you have decided to go elsewhere after thoroughly thinking about what would be the best career choice.

inertiatic_esp

This is correct. Definitely accept a position and then see what other options there may be without having to stress about it.

The actual choice depends on the details.

C2C

Best advice!

Commando

Top ten program in Northeast? You mean second or third tier school. You ain’t getting a great job at Goldman Sachs from there. You can get hired by Big Four. But don’t even think about becoming a bank teller or loan application processor – those are career dead ends far worse than public accounting.

Reasonable Assurance

Probably PACE.

TurtlyEnough

Commando with yet another “If you didn’t go to Wharton you are a useless pile and should apply for gas station attendant jobs” comment.

OP you should take an offer with one of the B4 firms and then explore IB. If you get an IB offer renege on the B4, you’ll have plenty of other opportunities anyways if you get into IB. I had a buddy do exactly this and it worked out for him. He got an analyst job in investment management with Goldman and dumped his B4 offer. And we were not one of the ‘elite’ schools, it was a national top 20 undergrad accounting program. West coast.

FWIW he burned out after 3 years, but he banked a bunch of money and transferred into a great ops and strategy position elsewhere.

On a side note, he commented on how all these B4 guys are always banging down Goldman’s door trying to get jobs. If you have interest in IB get in there right out of school, pretty hard to do once you’ve started down the public accounting path.

Debit_cash

I personally know plenty of undergrads that got into wall street, most went to schools that are not even in the top 100. Its all about networking, have a near perfect GPA, and really putting yourself out there. Your assertion holds true

TurtlyEnough

Agreed. It takes intelligence, a well thought out plan, and drive/discipline to get it done, but it is defintely doable. Another buddy from the same program went on to become a consultant at Bain & Co. Some people on here would have you believe you cannot do these things without an Ivy League education.

Debit_cash

-The only kind of banking you should be looking into is IB – forget retail banking (tellers, personal bankers, etc.). Retail banking is a joke.
-If you can get into IB, then go for it. It will look better on your resume. If you can’t get into IB, then you still have the big 4 to fall back on. Its not as sexy as IB, but it provides some job security.

sludgemonkey

Just drop by Moelis someday in New York, ask for Ken, make sure you have your resume along.

Debit_cash

Make sure to shine your shoes and read the markets section of the wall street journal so you can have some topics to discuss with Ken

sludgemonkey

Bring in a mid cap stock pick or two as well.

Debit_cash

Don’t forget to bring up the recent amazon merger and the spike in technology stocks. Ken will be highly impressed.

sludgemonkey

He likes caramel lattes.

Biff Tannen

The OP does cite “IB” specifically so hopefully fears of him turning down the House of Ernst and Young for a job inspecting crumpled checks at the local credit union are unfounded. In all honesty: DO IB. You’ll date more attractive women (just remember what Uncle Kanye said: “We want pre-nup! We want pre-nup!”), make more money and people won’t try to stuff you into lockers.

Juan Deck

Depends on which “finance” roles you have the option of obtaining. Some are much worse, and others are much better. With Big 4 audit, you know what you’re going to get – a couple years of being overworked/underpaid with a virtual guaranteed 6 figure job in industry afterwards. It also puts you in play for a decent MBA/Law School with some luck and smart moves. With finance, the lines are much grayer. I would take any FO finance role over Big 4 audit but nothing much else in the field, especially this early in your career.